Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics

[Scott Warner]

So - it's out there.

It's a bit of a departure from the last two albums. I've only listened to the whole thing once and my first stylistic impression is that this is the Lips attempting to do their version of a 70's classic rock record - and by that I mean more like Pink Floyd or Steely Dan than say, TREX. You're not going to get that impression immediately from the start of the record because it begins WACKY but by the end I think you'll see what I mean.

I have no idea how I feel about the quality of the record yet. It sounds pretty raw so what I'm hearing might be a pre-master (that was the case with Yoshimi's initial leak too...) Generally when I'm left with a "I don't know how to parse this yet" feeling on a first listen it means either A) Greatness (i.e. I'm being challenged by something cool), B) Forgettable - there's a nice range for you.

The first track "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" immediately sounds gimmicky and annoying (complete with like a 30 second Wayne falsetto in the middle of it) but on the second listen it was getting better and more obvious old school Lips so we'll see... I think they know the reaction they're immediately going to get to the song given the end of it has a sample of Steven saying "I quit... I didn't make it all the way through that"

"Vein of Stars" and "It Overtakes Me", on the other hand, are pretty immediately awesome and should please Lips fans.

BTW - "You've Got To Hold On" is nowhere to be found. While that track is single-worthy Lips material I have a feeling they left it off because it's very Yoshimi-like and would have sounded completely out of place on this album.

Fantastic album cover for this record...